And the bleeding begins

Northwest Airlines employees got an early indicator of how the merger with Delta could affect their future this week, when the carrier told some workers that Delta will close a major Twin Cities facility and shift up to 400 jobs to Atlanta.

The precise number of people who will accept relocation packages to move to Atlanta is not yet known.

But a major shift of jobs from Northwest’s operations control center could begin as early as 2010.

Not surprising at all. The right thing to do, still, is to have dual headquarters and make good on the promises made to the state of Minnesota. But that isn’t going to happen. The state had damn well better get it’s money back.